, 1887-07-27
SOME STERN FACTS.
President CleVeland's Pension
Record.
A Society Sensation in St.
Louis.
Jacob Kilrain and Jim Smith
Will Fight for Money.
CIeveIand's Pension Record.
Especial to the Denver News.l


WASHINGTON, July 25.-Many COM
rades of the Grand Army are asking if
the crusade now being carried on against
the president by the Tuttles and the Fair
chl!ds, who profess to, speak for that body,
Is especially because of his veto of pension
acts. 1t only requires a casual examina-
ton OF the records 10 show that there is
some other purpose behind these r~ailers.
Out OF the l23 pension vetoes (~including
the dependent pension bilD fourteen Of
these were on the ground that an approval
OF the special act would deprive the bene-
hclary OF the arrears act emitting him to a
pension, in some cases from 1862 instead
OF from the passage of the special act,
thus securing to the pensioners, four of
whom were widows, the sum of $l5,764
more han they would have received BY
the approval of the special acts. In addi-
ton to the above, in which certificates
were actually issued, twelve other vetoes
were on the ground that the benefciaries
and claims were pending in the pension
bureau, many involving arrears from 1868.
As these claims would shortly be com
pleted, doubtless to the advantage of the
claimant, and would work hardship to
deprive them of arrears by approving the
special acts. One was vetoed on the
ground that the claimant was already on
the rolls and the bill was not framed to
benefit him; another because his case was
provided for in the general Mexican PEN
sion law. OF each of four others the
president In substance says he already has
received the highest rate allowed under
the general law and would be entitled to no
more under the special act, | am unwilling
to ie%opardize his advantages already
gained. Four were vetoed in adherence
to the decision Of the pension Office said
that they were receiving pensions com
mensurate with the degree of disability
found to exist, fourteen on the ground
that the disability for which pension was
asked existed prior to enlistment, and five
because no disability was shown to have
existed since their discharge. Thirty
seven bills, mostly in favor of alleged
widows, were vetoed because of the en-
tire and conceded absence, in many in
stances, OF any proof or presumption,
however weak, that the soldier died from
service, n in others no proof whatever
of the death of the soldier. Thirteen
were vetoed because of having no merit,
scarcely a scrap Of evidence showing any
disability in the service, and SIX others
we're never in the military service at the
time Of the incurrence Of the alleged dis
ability, some having been drafted more
than a year afterwards. Ten others were
vetoed because of the charge of desertion
staining the records, and one, futile by
name, claiming a dependant fathers re-
lief because he abandoned his son while
said son was a minor. Would it have
been just to the honorable disabled soldier
or his deserving widow, to place his name
side by side on the pension roll with the
indecent soldiers of the republic2 This is
President Cleveland's pension record.
Wherein is it Indifferent to the deserving
soldier?